Proceeding with WPA posters, updated and completely repurposed and redone, retaining a similar message yet not at all - current for 2019, issues everlasting, since the 1935 - 1943 WPA period. Headlines are often the challenge.
The poster’s visual antecedent
Ima brag - recently finished the 900 page biography of him by David Blight, listened to it as I worked in the studio - 35+ hours. Had to really parcel out the early years of his life, as an enslaved child in Maryland. It was all fascinating and distressing as so many issues he contended with are still roiling our country.
Color consulting is part of what I do - people are often terrified of color which it’s totally understandable - a mistake can be costly as well as annoying to have to live with. Color is what I do, all day every day. I’m glad to consult. Sometimes the result is a bit more confidence in the colors you have chosen. Sometimes there is an exploration process, in which mockups of rooms in Photoshop simulate a color plan.
Wanted to share the posters I adjusted the color for a client who had a definite idea - she wanted them to coordinate with the pillows she had already chosen. Wish I could find the photos but it turned out great! Here are the posters; use your imagination about how the room looked with these warm, rich color accents -
Where Our New World Begins
By Kevin Baker
Fascinating history, and ends with …
Like the best of liberalism, which was what the original New Deal was—and the Green New Deal could be—the proof is in the doing. All the efforts to dismiss it as some socialist plot will not stand, cannot stand, if we are to meet the greatest challenges of our time. Those challenges will not vanish just because we want to avoid them. They will not slow just because we prefer to go slow. The Green New Deal, as its name implies, is meant to be a restoration, a return to the sort of fairness, the human balance, the dignity of a working life wantonly abandoned and derided by so many of our leading politicians and commentators. If we are to survive, it will be necessary to ignore them. Obviously, they have nothing more to offer.
The manifesto that announced the Green New Deal will not be instituted literally. Some parts of it will be compromised, some will be improved, added, or subtracted. But it had better come into being, or we will leave to future generations a world of natural disasters unlike anything we have ever known.
No doubt it will be a heavy lift. But there is one, somewhat comforting fact to remember as we face the task ahead of us: we have been here before.
https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/a-modest-proposal-tax-worthlessness/
Rent-seeking comes in many forms, including barriers to entry like onerous licenses, having to belong to a particular trade union in order to work in a trade, imposing tariffs, and corruption in government. In all cases, no additional wealth for the nation, sector or society is created.
Sometimes, requiring a license is necessary and makes sense. For example, doctors are not allowed to practice if they don’t have a license – that is to protect the well being of patients. Pilots are not allowed to fly passenger planes unless they have a special license – that is to protect the lives of the passengers. In such cases, license requirements make sense – the reasons are obvious.
though the air was moving big time and after thirty minutes, wind-whipped, I retreated indoors
Been indulging in art history and fascinated with a green from the late Victorian era (will maybe post more about that another time) but it led me to search out the forecast for the current year. As 2019 is well under way, the trends are becoming obvious, but Pantone among others will convene a panel years in advance and determine the colors, pigments, dyes, that manufacturing will start to produce in order to get products onto the shelves for consumers. The current year (and last, too) saw a lot of pink(s) and greens as well as black and other very dark colors. Matte Black? Hmmm, time to have a late 80’s revival?
… in the studio
…in the front garden …
…in the apartment garden …
…womp womp, sad trombone. Back yard needs a bit of work!
Yay at least the oligarchs got a tax break! It must be fatiguing counting all those billions.
It’s a tough tax season for lots of us, plus our health insurance (and it’s just crappy Blue Cross - it covers nothing!) has doubled thanks to ACA sabotage, so - please donate? My Online Store has the link, just tap on Buy Now. Wish I did not have to do this. Makes ya wonder what the big picture here is - - - and thanks, sincerely.
This plant is called Corazon de Chine in Guatemala
Maybe an MD-88? That is what we flew but this looks chubbier like a Boeing 737 - I draw whatever is available so I make no claims. Love to draw airplanes.
Making art constantly, interrupted to eat, walk or go to the gym, talk to the fam, then back into the studio.
Never been much of a floral person but this is like candy. There seems to be so much gloom and dread, it’s depressing. Yet spring has begun and it’s a great one, cool and more flowery than ever - thanks to the abundance of rain last year.
It’s an embarassment of beauty, a scandal of delight, a sweetness of color, brightness of scents; might as well give in to joy!
HR1 For the People Act
Protecting and expanding voting rights and election security:
Automatic voter registration
Online voter registration
Same day voter registration
Make election day a federal holiday
Voting rights restoration to people with prior felony convictions
Expand early voting and simplify absentee voting
Prohibit voter purges that kick eligible voters off the registration rolls
Enhance election security with increase support for a paper-based voting system and more oversight over election vendors
End partisan gerrymandering by established independent redistricting commissions
Prohibit providing false information about the elections process that discourage voting and other deceptive practices
Reduce the influence of big money in our politics:
Require secret money organizations that spend money in elections to disclose their donors
Upgrade online political spending transparency rules to ensure voters know who is paying for the advertisements they see
Create a small donor-focused public financing matching system so candidates for congress aren’t just reliant on big money donors to fund their campaigns and set their priorities
Strengthen oversight rules to ensure those who break our campaign finance laws are held accountable
Overhaul the federal election commission to enforce campaign finance law
Prohibit the use of shell companies to funnel foreign money in u.S. Election
Require government contractors to disclose their political spending
Ensure an ethical government accountable to the people:
Slow the revolving door between government officials and lobbyists
Expand conflict of interest law
Ban members of congress from serving on corporate boards
Require presidents to publicly disclose their tax returns
Overhaul the office of government ethics to ensure stronger enforcement of ethics rules
Require members of the U.S. Supreme court abide by a judicial code of ethics
in 2018 as always, it is fun to see my posters as they are installed in homes or businesses. Very proud to have created a home portrait (in center, below) - I cherish these opportunities to create for people who will keep them as memories of beloved pets or with personal meaning, such as a home.
Senator Ebbin does a great job for his constituents, which would include our daughter. So honored to do his holiday card for him.
Amazon we are not. And that’s a good thing, Amazon is a disaster for workers and probably for the country - don’t get me started. We pass through shipping costs, because we have to and cannot engage in games like Amazon Prime, etc. And the Genius Tariffs have made an impact in the cost of supplies. To wit:
From the Philadelphia Inquirer:
These are just exquisite together. The colors are so vivid against the matte dark grey background. This series will be offered in a limited, signed edition. I am that excited about them! Currently they are exhibited without glass: the subtle grays and blacks are lost in the reflections of normal glass. There is a great solution, and that is museum glass, but we will have to arrange for that in a special order, as museum glass needs to be custom ordered and the cost is, well, museum-level cost. Museum glass is not only UV protective, but it is laminated with films that cut the reflectivity. It is some kind of magic technology that allows the true colors and all the detail to be seen, as if the glass were not even there.
As the Monarch butterflies are migrating through our area at this very moment, and the last of the other butterflies are still in the fields, these posters are reminders of fleeting summertime.
They are really stunning, and I hope they find homes together though individually they do hold up well. Come see them on display at Cville Arts gallery, or soon at the Crozet Artisans Depot.
